Telltale hinge mounting for doors

ABSTRACT

A telltale hinge mounting for doors which are locked, as by padlocks in which the door can be lifted from its hinge mounting to afford access to the interior in the event of an emergency. Thus, entrance can be gained even though the door is locked. However, to restore the hinge to its normal useful position, a spring pressed plunger must be retracted to clear the way for the pintle and this must be done from the inside of the door. This can not be achieved with the door in locked condition, so that with the door lifted from its hinge mounting, it would at once be apparent that unauthorized entry has been had.

United States Patent [1 1 Hicks 51 Apr. 3, 1973 [54] TELLTALE HINGE MOUNTING FOR DOORS [75] Inventor: Hjalmar L. Hicks, Toledo, Ohio [73] Assignees: Kenneth A. Hicks; Linda Kaye,

both of Toledo, Ohio [22] Filed: Apr. 19, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 135,110

[52] US. Cl. ..16/128, 16/149, l6/l76 [51] Int. Cl. ..E05d 9/00 [58] Field of Search ..l6/l49,ll4,181,128,171,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 502,723 8/1893 Jackson ..l6/l76 2,778,053 1/1957 Hess et al. ..l6ll76 Primary Examiner-Francis K. Zugel Assistant Examiner-Doris L. Troutman Attorney-Malcolm W. Fraser [57] ABSTRACT A telltale hinge mounting for doors which are locked, as by padlocks in which the door can be lifted from its hinge mounting to afford access to the interior in the event of an emergency. Thus, entrance can be gained even though the door is locked. However, to restore the hinge to its normal useful position, a spring pressed plunger must be retracted to clear the way for the pintle and this must be done from the inside of the door. This can not be achieved with the door in locked condition, so that with the door lifted from its hinge mounting, it would at once be apparent that unauthorized entry has been had.

3 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures TELLTALE HINGE MOUNTING FOR DOORS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION At rncc tracks, the stalls in which the horses are kept should not be locked because the horses should be quickly freed in the event of fire. Thus, to prevent tarnpering with the horses, guards are necessary but since they can not always be in attendance throughout the day and night, opportunity is afforded for one to enter and by injection or otherwise prevent the horse from running normally. Many race horses are thus maltreated and thereby causing great losses to their owners.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The door hinge assembly has a pintle which is downtumed to have bearing in a socket member, which is fixed to the door frame so that the door is swung to and from open position with the pintle portion turning in its socket. The door can be disconnected from its hinge mounting by merely lifting it so that the downtumed bearing portion clears the socket member. However, in order to provide a telltale, a spring pressed plunger is continuously urged against the pintle bearing portion so that should that bearing portion be lifted out of its socket member, the plunger abruptly snaps to a position across the socket so that the bearing portion of the pintle cannot be reinserted without first retracting the plunger. Such retraction can only be accomplished from the inside of the door, which is impossible with the door in its padlocked condition. Hence, a telltale is manifest which readily indicates unauthorized entry.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a door and frame padlocked at one side and provided on the other side with the hinge assembly;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the hinge assembly, parts being broken away, and the pintle removed; and

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the hinge assembly showing the pintle in position of use.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The illustrated embodiment of the invention comprises a door which has a frame 11, to which one side of the door is secured by a padlock P. The other side of the door is connected to the frame 11 by a plurality of hinge connections hereinafter to be described, and which are so designed that by lifting vertically on the door, the hinges can be disconnected to gain entrance to the interior even though the padlocked connection remains in locked condition. This is particularly useful for horse stalls at race tracks, for example. The owner desires to keep his race horse locked up so as to prevent any tampering with the animal which may adversely affect its running, and as a consequence the padlock P is kept locked most of the time when the horse is left to itself. However, in case of an emergency, such as a fire, it is quite important that anyone be able to open the stall doors and free the animals. That can be achieved in accordance with this door mounting even though it is locked.

As shown, a single hinge assembly is shown at the edge portion of the door 10 opposite from the padlocked side. A pintle 12 projects outwardly from the door edge and has a downtumed bearing portion 13 at its outer end. This portion is relatively short and is disposed at about right angles to the outwardly projecting arm. The pintle bearing portion 13 fits into a vertically disposed socket member 14, the upper end 15 of which is open and the bottom end 16 of which is closed. The bearing portion 13, as well as the socket member 14, are cylindrical in shape, the fit being such that the pintle bearing portion 13 can swing or rock freely in the socket portion, and with one or more similar hinges, support the weight of the door. The socket member 14 is provided with aligned transverse openings in opposite walls through which the end portion of a closed end tubular barrel 17 extends, the latter being formed with openings registering with the bore of the socket member 14 to enable the pintle bearing portion 13 to pass freely therethrough. The barrel l7 and socket member 14 are welded together to provide a rigid structure.

Slideable within the barrel 17 is a plunger 19 which is relatively short in length and which is urged to the right by a relatively strong helical coil spring 20, one end of which bears against the inner end of the plunger and the opposite end of which bears against the respective closed end of the barrel. The barrel 17 and socket member 14 are welded to a generally T-shaped flat mounting plate of sheet metal. The arrangement is such that the mounting plate 21 can be placed flatwise against the door frame 11 and secured in place by a series of bolts 22. Suitable provision is made so that the bolts cannot be removed from the mounting plate, as by upsetting the inner ends on the inside of the stall.

On the side resting against the door frame 11 is an horizontally elongate slot 23 in the barrel 17. A similar slot (not shown) is provided in the door frame so that from the inside of the stall access to the plunger 19 can be had in order to retract it for enabling re-entry of the pintle bearing portion 13.

It will be understood that when the door 10 is lifted so as to move the pintle bearing portion 13 from the socket member 14 the plunger 19, which normally bears against the pintle bearing portion 13, abruptly snaps to the position shown on FIG. 2. Thus, the plunger 19 does not interfer with the lifting of the pintle from the socket member 14, but it does interfer with the re-insertion of the pintle bearing portion 13 by positively blocking the passage into the socket member. This can be accomplished only by first retracting the plunger 19 against the force of the spring 20. As above pointed out, such retraction of the plunger 19 can be effected only from the inside of the stall. Therefore, should the door be opened by lifting for removing the pintle from the bearing portions, it cannot be returned to normal position because of the padlocked condition of the door. This, therefore, provides a telltale that someone has gained unauthorized access to the interior of the stall which would'enable the owner of the horse to take appropriate action. Notwithstanding, access to the stall can be had without difficulty in the event of a calamity, such as fire.

, What I claim is:

1. A telltale hinge mounting for a door having its opposite side locked against movement, comprising a pintle adapted to be fixed at one end to a door structure,

a downturned bearing portion at the opposite end of said pintle,

a socket member having an open upper end to receive said pintle bearing portion for door swinging movements, said pintle bearing being removable from said socket member by upward movement of the door, and

a spring loaded plunger constantly pressed against a side of said bearing portion,

whereby upon removal of the latter, the plunger snaps abruptly transversely across said socket member to block reinsertion of said bearing portion and requiring said plunger first to be retracted before the pintle can be reinserted.

2. A telltale hinge mounting as claimed in claim 1, comprising a mounting plate for connection to the door frame, and welded connections between said barrel and socket member and between such parts and said mounting plate.

3. A telltale hinge mounting as claimed in claim 1, comprising an elongate slot on the inner side of the barrel accessible only from the inside of the door to enable retraction of said plunger against the force of the spring to enable reinsertion of said pintle bearing portion. 

1. A telltale hinge mounting for a door having its opposite side locked against movement, comprising a pintle adapted to be fixed at one end to a door structure, a downturned bearing portion at the opposite end of said pintle, a socket member having an open upper end to receive said pintle bearing portion for door swinging movements, said pintle bearing being removable from said socket member by upward movement of the door, and a spring loaded plunger constantly pressed against a side of said bearing portion, whereby upon removal of the latter, the plunger snaps abruptly transversely across said sockEt member to block reinsertion of said bearing portion and requiring said plunger first to be retracted before the pintle can be reinserted.
 2. A telltale hinge mounting as claimed in claim 1, comprising a mounting plate for connection to the door frame, and welded connections between said barrel and socket member and between such parts and said mounting plate.
 3. A telltale hinge mounting as claimed in claim 1, comprising an elongate slot on the inner side of the barrel accessible only from the inside of the door to enable retraction of said plunger against the force of the spring to enable reinsertion of said pintle bearing portion. 